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"I Need Do Nothing" Discussed

I’ve written a few times about how the heading in A Course in Miracles, “I Need Do Nothing”
(T-18.VII), is universally misused by ACIM students. They read this line and
their ego (personal thought system) panics because they think that they are not
supposed to direct the self to do anything at all ever again so their life in
the world will fall to pieces. And then their mind shuts. They are then unable
to take in anything that follows that heading and they miss the point of that
section entirely.

(A study hint: If you read something in ACIM that inspires
fear you are misreading it with the ego. Truth inspires liberation, not fear.
Put it aside for a while, then invite the Holy Spirit into your mind and read
it again with Love. If you are still too afraid to let the Holy Spirit through
then you may benefit from studying with someone who has more experience – like
a mentor!)

The section headed by “I Need Do Nothing” is really about
the release from guilt that you find in the Holy Instant. In the Holy Instant you
realize that you are Home in God, not separate from God, so you are not guilty.
Therefore, you “need do nothing” – you don’t have to perfect the self or make
it “right” or “good” - to be released from guilt. This section has nothing to
do with ceasing all activity of the body. It is solely about the mind. In fact,
it acknowledges the “busy doing” of the body in the world.

Since this section is almost never read as it was meant, I
thought I’d take you through it paragraph by paragraph to ease the anxiety that
the heading seems to evoke in students’ minds.

(This is very long and it may be difficult to read on a
small device. The italicized parts are from ACIM and from my translation of the
Text into plain language, The Message of
A Course in Miracles (MACIM). I use both here so you can choose which you
prefer. My comments then follow and are not italicized).

(T-18.VII);(MACIM-18.7)
I Need Do Nothing

(ACIM)

1. You still have too
much faith in the body as a source of strength. What plans do you make that do
not involve its comfort or protection or enjoyment in some way? This makes the
body an end and not a means in your interpretation, and this always means you
still find sin attractive. No one accepts Atonement for himself who still accepts
sin as his goal. You have thus not met your one responsibility.
Atonement is not welcomed by those who prefer pain and destruction.

(MACIM)

1. You still have too
much faith in the body as a source of strength. All your plans involve the
body’s comfort, protection, or enjoyment in some way. This means that you
interpret the body as an end in itself and not as a means for correction and
that you still find separation from God attractive. You have not accepted
correction if you still have separation as your goal and therefore you have not
met your one responsibility – accepting correction of your perception that you
are separate from God. You will not welcome correction while you prefer pain
and Self-destruction.

You have too much faith in the body as a source of
strength. [The “body” in ACIM
includes the physical body, the personality of the self, and the thought
system of the self (ego)]. That’s why
you are so concerned with it. You see it as an end in itself, so you are
attracted to it. This means you are unconsciously attracted to guilt (the
belief that sin, or separation from God, is real). Remember, elsewhere in ACIM
it says that your “sole responsibility” is to accept the Atonement (correction
of your belief that you are guilty for being separate from God) for yourself.
Your attraction to the body, therefore your belief in guilt, makes you believe
that correction is impossible. So you do not meet your one responsibility of
accepting correction. You won’t welcome correction while guilt (pain and
destruction) seems meaningful to you.

(ACIM)

2. There is one thing
that you have never done; you have not utterly forgotten the body. It has perhaps faded at times from your
sight, but it has not yet completely disappeared. You are not asked to let this
happen for more than an instant, yet it is in this instant that the miracle of
Atonement happens. Afterwards you will
see the body again, but never quite the same. And every instant that you spend
without awareness of it gives you a different view of it when you return.

(MACIM)

2. There is one thing
you that have never done: completely forgotten the body. Perhaps it has
sometimes faded from your awareness but it has never completely disappeared
from your awareness. You are asked to do this for only an Instant but in that
Instant the miracle of correction happens. After that Instant you will be aware
of the body again but never in quite the same way. Every Instant that you spend
without an awareness of the body will give you a different view of it when you
return to an awareness of it.

Helen is being told that she has not yet allowed a Holy Instant,
Which is described here as completely forgetting the body for an instant. (As
you read this you may or may not have allowed a Holy Instant). An instant is
all that is needed. In that instant you realize that the body and the story for
time are not real. You are not separate from God so you are not guilty. Even
though it is only an instant, it is enough to change how you view the body. You
begin to realize that the body has nothing to offer; it is just a temporary
experience as you learn to remember God. The body is no longer an end in
itself; it is a means to remember God. The more you experience the Holy Instant
the less you value the body.

(ACIM)

3. At no single instant
does the body exist at all. It is always remembered or anticipated, but never
experienced just now. Only its
past and future make it seem real. Time controls it entirely, for sin is never
wholly in the present. In any single instant the attraction of guilt would be
experienced as pain and nothing else, and would be avoided. It has no
attraction now.Its whole
attraction is imaginary, and therefore must be thought of in the past or in the
future.

(MACIM)

3. There is no instant
in which the body exists at all. You always remember it or anticipate it but
you never experience it now. Only the personal self’s seeming past and
projected future make the body seem real to you. Time controls your perception
of the body entirely because your perception of separation from God is never
wholly in the present. In any single instant you experience the attraction of
separation from God as pain and nothing else and if you recognized this you
would avoid it. Guilt has no attraction to you now. Its whole attraction to you
is imaginary and therefore you must think of in the past or in the future.

Time is the illusion on which all other illusions rest. This
includes the body. You have a story for the body’s (self’s) past and you
imagine its future and this is what makes it seem real to you. Your attraction
to the self’s story means that, unconsciously, you are attracted to guilt. The
story for the body, which is the story of your guilt for being separate from
God, contains stories of guilt from the body’s imagined past and you expect
punishment for your guilt in the body’s future. You have a hard time being
present because guilt arises in your mind and you experience how painful guilt
is. So your mind avoids guilt in the present in an imagined past and an
anticipated future in which you do not consciously see the guilt.

(ACIM)

4. It is impossible to
accept the holy instant without reservation unless, just for an instant, you
are willing to see no past or future. You cannot prepare for it without placing
it in the future. Release is given you the instant you desire it. Many have
spent a lifetime in preparation, and have indeed achieved their instants of
success. This course does not attempt to teach more than they learned in time,
but it does aim at saving time. You may be attempting to follow a very long
road to the goal you have accepted. It is extremely difficult to reach Atonement
by fighting against sin. Enormous effort is expended in the attempt to make
holy what is hated and despised. Nor is a lifetime of contemplation and long
periods of meditation aimed at detachment from the body necessary. All such
attempts will ultimately succeed because of their purpose. Yet the means are
tedious and very time consuming, for all of them look to the future for release
from a state of present unworthiness and inadequacy.

(MACIM)

4. Until you are
willing to see no past and no future for just an Instant you will have
reservations about the Holy Instant. You cannot prepare for the Holy Instant
without placing It in the future. The instant that you desire the Holy Instant
you will be released in It. In the world that you perceive one way to God is to
spend your time preparing for the Holy Instant and this does have its moments
of success. This course does not attempt to teach more than that path teaches
in time but it does aim at saving time. You may be trying to follow a very long
road to the Goal of God that you have accepted. It is extremely difficult for
you to reach total correction of your perception that you are separate from God
by fighting against perceived “sin”. You will have to expend enormous effort
trying to make Holy the body that the personal mind despises. It is also not
necessary for you to spend a lifetime in contemplation and long periods of
meditation aimed at detachment from the body. All these attempts would
ultimately succeed because of their Purpose but these means are tedious and
very time consuming and they all look to the future for release from a present
state of unworthiness and inadequacy.

You must be willing to let go of time, the body, and
therefore guilt, just for an instant, to experience the Holy Instant. That is
all. If you think you need to prepare for the Holy Instant you are putting
release from guilt off into the future. The belief that it takes time to be
released from guilt puts distance between you and the Holy Instant. You don’t
have to perfect the body (fight against sin), which is so difficult because the
ego despises it. You don’t have to take yourself off to a cave or a monastery
and spend a lifetime struggling to detach from the body. These would ultimately
work, but they are the long way to peace because they make sin (guilt) real to
you and put peace off to the future. Instead, you can use the Holy Instant
right now and save time.

(ACIM)

5. Your way will be
different, not in purpose but in means. A holy relationship is a means of
saving time. One instant spent together with your brother restores the universe
to both of you. You are prepared. Now you need but to remember you need
do nothing. It would be far more profitable now merely to concentrate on this
than to consider what you should do. When peace comes at last to those who
wrestle with temptation and fight against the giving in to sin; when the light
comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the goal is finally
achieved by anyone, it always comes with just one happy realization; "I
need do nothing."

(MACIM)

5. Your way is
different from these paths, not in Purpose, but in means. A Holy relationship
is a means of saving time. One instant of Holiness that you extend to your
relationship with another restores Reality to your mind. You are prepared for
the Holy Instant and all that you now need to remember is that you need do
nothing. It is far more useful now for you to concentrate on this than to
consider what you should do. When Peace comes at last after wrestling with
temptation and fighting against “sin”, when enlightenment comes after a
lifetime of contemplation, or when the Goal is achieved in any way it will come
with the happy realization: “I need do nothing”.

Helen and Bill are being told that they are given a
different means, the Holy Relationship, to save time. But what can you, who may
not have a Holy Relationship, do to save time? Remember from earlier in ACIM
that the Holy Relationship is the expression in time of the Holy Instant. But
whether you have this expression available or not the Holy Instant is still available
to you and to everyone. No one needs to prepare for it. All you need is
willingness to put aside guilt and experience God. The realization, “I need do nothing” to make yourself not
guilty comes when you are willing to recognize that you are already not guilty.

(ACIM)

6. Here is the
ultimate release which everyone will one day find in his own way, at his own
time. You do not need this time. Time has been saved for you because you and
your brother are together. This is the special means this course is using to
save you time. You are not making use of the course if you insist on using
means which have served others well, neglecting what was made for you. Save time for me by only this one
preparation, and practice doing nothing else. "I need do nothing" is
a statement of allegiance, a truly undivided loyalty. Believe it for just one
instant, and you will accomplish more than is given to a century of
contemplation, or of struggle against temptation.

(MACIM)

6. Here is the
ultimate release that you will eventually find. You do not need time for this
because time has been saved for you since you extended your Self to your
perception of another. This is the special means that this course uses to save
you time. You are not making use of this course if you insist on neglecting the
means that was made for you in favor of other means. Save time for your Christ
Mind with this one preparation and practice doing nothing else: “I need do
nothing.” This is a statement of undivided allegiance to your Christ Mind.
Believe it for just one instant and you will accomplish more than you would
accomplish in a century of contemplation or of struggle against temptation.

The Holy Instant is the moment of release, or forgiveness,
from guilt. It is the special means offered by ACIM as a short-cut for those
who are willing to use it. You only have to be willing to realize that you “need
do nothing” to make yourself guiltless because you have never left God and so
are not guilty. Your willingness to use the Holy Instant attests to your
commitment to peace. If you just accept for one instant the awareness that you
are Home in God you accomplish in that instant what others have taken a century
to accomplish through contemplation and attempts to make the self perfect.

(ACIM)

7. To do anything
involves the body. And if you recognize you need do nothing, you have withdrawn
the body's value from your mind. Here is the quick and open door through which
you slip past centuries of effort, and escape from time. This is the way in which
sin loses all attraction right now.
For here is time denied, and past and future gone. Who needs do nothing
has no need for time. To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within you
where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. Into this place the
Holy Spirit comes, and there abides. He will remain when you forget, and the
body's activities return to occupy your conscious mind.

(MACIM)

7. To “do” involves
the body. When you recognize that you need do nothing you will withdraw the
body’s value from your mind. This is the door through which you quickly slip
past centuries of effort to escape from time. This is the way that the
separation loses all of its attraction for you now because you deny time and
the past and the future are gone for you. When you need do nothing you have no
need for time. For you to do nothing is for you to rest and to make a place
within your mind where the activity of the body ceases to demand your
attention. The Holy Spirit then comes into and abides in this place of rest
within you. And the Holy Spirit will remain with you when you forget again and
the body’s activities return to occupy your conscious mind.

When you recognize from the Holy Instant that you don’t need
to perfect the body to be with God and be released from guilt you release
yourself from valuing the body. It, and therefore guilt, cease to attract you right now. You don’t need time to do
this. You just need to rest in the Holy Instant with the Holy Spirit. And the
Holy Spirit will remain in your mind when you return your mind to the body’s
activities.

(ACIM)

8. Yet there will
always be this place of rest to which you can return. And you will be more
aware of this quiet center of the storm than all its raging activity. This
quiet center, in which you do nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in
the midst of every busy doing on which you are sent. For from this center will
you be directed how to use the body sinlessly. It is this center, from which
the body is absent, that will keep it so in your awareness of it.

(MACIM)

8. There is always
this place of rest within you. Within it you are more aware of the Quiet Center
than of the storming personal mind raging around it. This Quiet Center in Which
you do nothing remains with you and gives you rest in the midst of all the busy
doing to which the Holy Spirit sends you. From this Center you will be directed
in how to use the body for correction of your perception of separation from
God. It is this Center, from Which the body is absent, that will keep you aware
that the body cannot separate you from God.

The Holy Instant is always with you, a Quiet Place within to
Which you can return to rest. The more you practice it the more aware you will
be of a Quiet Center as you go about the body’s busy-ness. From the Quiet Center
you will be directed how to use the body in a way that will not increase your
guilt because it is from this Center that you know that you are not guilty.

As you can see, there is nothing in this section about
ceasing all of the self’s activities. On the contrary, it makes statements in
the last two paragraphs that acknowledge the activities and busy-ness of the
self. Moreover, this section emphasizes the ongoing message of ACIM: You don’t
have to prepare yourself for God by perfecting the self. All you need is
willingness, which is of the mind, to be released from guilt and to experience
God. So why would it then tell you that you have to live a certain way? This
would contradict its central message of forgiveness, which is that nothing you
do or do not do as a person has any effect on God at all. This is hard to
accept because needing only to have a willing mind completely cuts out the body
and ego from the process. This is what this section is explaining.

You bring the Holy Instant with you into the midst of a
normal life in the world. You don’t have to stay in a Holy Instant. You only
have to be willing to practice it a few times a day. And it becomes the means
through which you grow your awareness of God. This releases you from the value
that you have put on the self, and therefore from valuing separation from God
and guilt.

Learn about one-on-one mentoring, how to send a donation for this blog, and about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, 4 Habits for Inner Peace, and Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

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Comments

ES said…

Another nice clarification of an oft misconstrued concept. For me the "doing" in practicing the course is the time I set aside for inviting the Holy Spirit to enter my consciousness and the focus I bring to an ongoing, real-time forgiving of negative thoughts throughout the day. Also, one may consider the contrast of the Course with Buddhism - in the latter, one needs to work hard to perfect the self in order to earn peace, usually over lifetimes (spare me), while the Course teaches that peace is here now, was always there, and will always be.

Spot on Liz. It is impossible to be separated from love and the more we keep that forefront in our thoughts, the more we can bath in our connection (Holy Instant) to God. A very good read and thank you.

Please do not take this crap literally. You need to do so much that you won't get it all done in the allotted time span. You need do nothing to claim your Promised Love from your Father. You need do nothing to be led from darkness into the Light by your Brother. You need do nothing to pump the blood through your veins, nor to blink your eyes or be the Reflection of your Father. Ask God what He wants from you; do not ask me. Nor people who agree with your every thought. God's plan is written. You are in it. If there was "nothing" for you to do, there would be no need for your presence or existence. Tarry, if you must. But turn your Mind skyward as the message is clear - then forsaking everything and all, follow the Light.

Wow! I have been wondering about how to experience the Holy Instant, and this helps. Just reading this fills me with deep peace and happiness. Lately I've been contemplating Light and how I am Light and therefore limitless and One. Throughout the day I contemplate my being as Light and in Light, and it brings me to this same feeling that I got when I read these words. Soit seems I have been experiencing the Holy Instant all this time. I guess anything that brings you to that feeling of release from identification with form and time is all that's needed. Thank you Liz!

There is a lot in this blog to take in. Too much for me to read from my computer or kindle. I printed the blog out, stapled it together so l can read it in bed. It was still a lot so I broke it down by copying out the paragraphs Liz wrote and moving them over to MS Word and printed it out so I can just focus on that. It took all of about two minutes.

I have re-read this...and I think the key to this statement is so simple: I "need" do nothing....it doesn't say "I do nothing", it's about the "need" to do something, or the "concern" about doing something...that is what I recall Ken Wapnick's saying on one of his cd's years ago - to look at our "concern" about this or that. That is we let It, the Holy Spirit heals our "issues" with person, place, or thing.

A tidal wave of thought. If you just read the blog and don’t have a clue what you read or you want to throw Text out the window you’re not alone. Reading this stuff used to make me crazy. Here’s a sentence from this week’s blog: “You do not need time for this because time has been saved for you since you extended your Self to your perception of another.” If you’re saying “Now what the hell is that supposed to mean” you aren’t alone. I spent around 10 years trying to understand the word “extension.” No lie. We have to study this stuff, read it, but you don’t have to put expectations on yourself that you are supposed to understand it as you read. Not! Go sit under a tree or your living room chair if it’s below zero out and calm you mind for a few minutes and then tell Jesus you’re here to do the Holy Instant even though you don’t know what that is and ask for help. Then sit quiet. Just quiet your mind as best you can. I think that will cover it. Do it often, whenever you think of it. Lesson 189 paragraphs 7-10 is helpful; there’s a prayer there too!

I think Jesus is probably thrilled if you will just try. If you wrote a course that was pretty near impossible to understand and knew a person was doing all they could because they believed in it, that they believed in what you were doing, you would be bending over backward to help them, to take care of them. Wouldn't you? Of course you would.

I'm new to the course,about halfway through and it leaves me with lots of questions. Thanks for reminding me, Will, that I don't need to be too concerned about my ignorance ! What I would like to know is whether I'm "an individual, conscious Identity " or just an amorphous blob ?.Thanks all for the comments, they really help me.

GAF, in Truth you are formless Being extending infinitely. You have no boundaries or limitations of any kind.

However, for purposes of studying ACIM, you are a mind split between identifying with form (self - body, personality, ego) and Formless Being. You are able to learn that you are not what you thought you were (form) and to invite experiences that show you What you are (Formless).

In a nutshell:I need 'do' nothing to become aware of Truth. All that is required is my 'willingness' and that is not a 'doing' of the body or a 'thinking' of the mind but a state of 'being'. For me it has been experienced as a freeing surrender that transcends form or thought.

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I have been a student of A Course in Miracles since 1984, a life coach since 2000, and a mentor for students of A Course in Miracles and 4 Habits for Inner Peace since 2006. You can learn more about me and what I offer at my website, www.acimmentor.com.